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School Improvement Team Member
As a member of the school improvement team I was able to participate in a diverse discussion to better the school environment and community. The team was organized by Richard Small, the CTC director who selected a variety of career and technical instructors, students, parents and industry professionals. Almost every meeting emphasized student engagement, but I remember in our second meeting specifically one of my students spoke up about enjoying and benefiting from in class discussion. Through the course of other meetings students would chime in occasionally and no matter the student, I found there words immensely interesting. It was my own formative resource to incorporate into my lessons thereafter and I found some students responded well!
Perhaps the biggest improvement within East Providence High School is connecting the career and technical programs to the core academics. All along there have been two separate building housing each and next school year everyone will be moving into a brand new building! The beauty of incorporating industry professional and parents in the conversation is enforcing the schools their mission to "maintain a strong sense of community". It is their intention that once school is up and running next Fall, parents, graduates, community members, industry professionals and visiting guests will be welcomed to tour the space and eventually opportunities may arise to use or rent areas of the building for special events bringing in some income as well. There are a lot of exciting things coming their way and I'm glad I was able to be part of the conversation.
Professional Development Opportunities
SkillsUSA alongside many other national student organizations are really great opportunities for both students and educators.There were three students who competed this year. It was definitely tough being virtual of course plus it seemed as though everything came together in the last minute. I had joined a few zoom calls to discuss the specifics of the culinary and baking competition and tried my best to be a part of each students practice. Not physically being there made this almost impossible, but earlier in the process I had worked independently with one of the seniors competing in culinary. She set up her cameras through google meets and we walked through chicken fabrication as she moved through the steps on her chicken. I found out after the awards ceremony that she placed in 4th!
BE-PLN Keynote Sessions
BE-PLN Keynote Sessions
I really enjoyed both of the sessions I attended. In the first session I attended, both speakers spoke about foundational concepts of pedagogy on how to expand upon them in a digital education system. Although we have spoken extensively about scaffolding, I was not familiar with the waterfall model of learning. Within this model, Malika Ali spoke of the dreaded ‘pit’ that everyone experiences at some point and how to help our students, but the importance of not ‘creating a bridge’ or over scaffolding. Both speakers highlighted many techniques that can be used in our digital model, but I found two that resonated with me the most.
Liz Russillo suggested a really great exercise that incorporated both virtual and in person students in the same activity, but with different roles. I translated that into my classroom to have in person students physically making the recipe without actually having it in front of them. The virtual students were then responsible for guiding those in person on each step with the provided recipe.
The other was suggested by Malika Ali; a simple tip to help connect with your students more. The suggestion was to have students change their virtual background to a photo of something they want to share about, love to do, love to eat etc. Very simple suggestion, but a great way to learn more about your students and encourage them to actually turn their cameras on.
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